Education at a Glance

Centre for Educational Research and Innovation

OECD's annual Education at a Glance looks at who participates in education, what is spent on it, how education systems operate and the results achieved. The latter includes indicators on a wide range of outcomes, from comparisons of students’ performance in key subject areas to the impact of education on earnings and on adults’ chances of employment. This book includes StatLinks, urls linking to Excel® spreadsheets containing the background data.

This 2008 edition of Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators provides a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators on the performance of education systems in OECD countries and represents the consensus of professional thinking on how to measure the current state of education internationally. The indicators look at who participates in education, what is spent on it and how education systems operate and at the results achieved. The latter includes indicators on a wide range of outcomes, from comparisons of students’ performance in key subject areas to the impact of education on earnings and on adults’ chances of employment.

New material in this edition includes: entry rates in tertiary education by field of study; data on the skills of 15-year-olds in science; an analysis of the socio-economic background of 15-year-olds and the role of their parents; data on the extent to which the socio-economic status of parents affects students' participation in higher education; data on the returns to education; data on the governance of higher education institutions; an analysis of efficiency in the use of resources; data on evaluations and assessments within education systems; and a comparison of the levels of decision-making in education across countries

OECD governments have high ambitions for their education systems, wanting them to grow both in volume and quality. Yet public budgets face tight constraints, and education remains predominantly a public enterprise. So has education funding been able to meet the extra demands being placed on it, and will it be able to do so in the future?

Education at a Glance – OECD Indicators 2008 provides a rich, comparable and up-to-date array of indicators that reflect a consensus among professionals on how to measure the current state of education internationally. The indicators provide information on the human and financial resources invested in education, on how education and learning systems operate and evolve, and on the returns to educational investments. The indicators are organised thematically, and each is accompanied by information on the policy context and the interpretation of the data.

This indicator profiles the educational attainment of the adult population, as captured through formal educational qualifications. As such, it provides a proxy for the knowledge and skills available to national economies and societies. To have a better understanding of the demand for education, the distribution of occupations across OECD countries and the matching of tertiary-educated individuals to skilled jobs are also examined in this indicator. Data on attainment by fields of education and by age groups are used to examine the distribution of skills in the population and to furnish a rough measure of skills that have recently entered the labour market and of those that will be leaving the labour market in the coming years.

Educational expenditure in this chapter are classified through three dimensions:

• The first dimension – represented by the horizontal axis in the diagram below – relates to the location where spending occurs. Spending on schools and universities, education ministries and other agencies directly involved in providing and supporting education is one component of this dimension. Spending on education outside these institutions is another.

• The second dimension – represented by the vertical axis in the diagram below – classifies the goods and services that are purchased. Not all expenditure on educational institutions can be classified as direct educational or instructional expenditure. Educational institutions in many OECD countries offer various ancillary services – such as meals, transports, housing, etc. – in addition to teaching services to support students and their families. At the tertiary level spending on research and development can be significant. Not all spending on educational goods and services occurs within educational institutions. For example, families may purchase textbooks and materials themselves or seek private tutoring for their children.

• The third dimension – represented by the colours in the diagram below – distinguishes among the sources from which funding originates. These include the public sector and international agencies (indicated by the light blue colour), and households and other private entities (indicated by the medium-blue colour). Where private expenditure on education is subsidised by public funds, this is indicated by cells in the dark blue colour.

This indicator shows the participation of students in vocational education and training (VET) at the upper secondary level and the distribution of upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary vocational graduates across fields of education. It compares the levels of educational expenditure per student for general programmes and VET at the upper secondary level. It also compares educational outcomes of 15-year-old students enrolled in general and in vocational education.

This indicator examines the amount of instruction time students are expected to receive between the ages of 7 and 15. It also discusses the relationship between instruction time and student learning outcomes.